Virginia Tech names director of School of Architecture + Design

February 14, 2004

Scott Poole of Blacksburg, Va., professor of architecture in the College of Architecture & Urban Studies at Virginia Tech, has been named director of the college's new School of Architecture + Design. The foundation, professional, and graduate architecture programs,as well as industrial and interior design, comprise the five academic areas in the school.

The establishment of the new school will strengthen the presence of the professional and design disciplines at Virginia Tech and will result in a more comprehensive and integrated set of related professional curricula in architecture and design, fostering collaborative activities in the areas of design research and outreach, as well as increased sponsored research activity. The school will help create a more coherent identity for the architecture and design programs, serving to enhance interactions with the 4,000+ alumni associated with its programs.

Programs in the school will be based at the main campus in Blacksburg, and at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center in Alexandria, Va. A studio program will also continue to be offered each semester at the university's Center for European Studies and Architecture in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland.

A registered architect in Virginia, Poole came to Virginia Tech in 1986 after teaching at the University of Texas. While at the University of Texas, Poole spent one year in Finland as a Fulbright Scholar. He has lectured at Yale University, the University of Virginia, and the School of Architecture in Århus, Denmark, and has conducted design workshops at the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Poole was the Gillmor visiting lecturer at the University of Calgary in 2000. He has organized several symposia including the Permanence and Presence symposia in 1996 and 1998, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the American-Scandinavian Foundation.

He is the recipient of the College of Architecture and Urban Studies' Teaching Excellence Award for 2002. In 2003 he served as co-chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture International Conference held in Helsinki, Finland, and also served as discussion moderator of the final discussion at the 9th Alvar Aalto Symposium in Jyväskylä, Finland.

Poole received his master's degree from the University of Texas.

The College of Architecture and Urban Studies at Virginia Tech is comprised of two schools, the School of Architecture + Design and the School of Public and International Affairs, which include programs in architecture, art and art history, building construction, public administration and policy, interior design, industrial design, landscape architecture, government and international affairs, and urban affairs and planning. All programs strive to promote an understanding of the complexity of our environment and ways to improve that environment through thoughtful teaching and research in the design, planning, and construction fields. The college enrolls more than 2,200 students, offering 22 degrees programs taught by 130 faculty members.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top 30 research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.